Worlds Largest Liqueur Manufacturer

Project Description

Rockbrooks Process Division delivered the complete changeover from Siemens Wincc S5/S7 PLC System to a Siemens PCS7 DCS system for a global liqueur manufacturing site based in Dublin. In addition to the upgrade Rockbrook is providing the facility with 24hour system support.

The site had reached the point where their production facility was unable to keep up with demand on some of their brands. There was a fixed amount of space in the facility, so they had to be smart about their upgrade plans.

Rockbrooks experience as on site sole automation service provider had provided an in-depth knowledge of the structure of the current automation system and the workings of the plant from both an operational and process perspective. Rockbrook structured their software design proposal to address the shortfalls in the current system while meeting all of the plant requirements.

The system upgrade was based on Siemens PCS7 as the engineering platform.

System components included:

PCS 7 Operating System

PCS7 Engineering Platform

Route Control

APF Library

The base system was engineered in such a way that it is tailor made to client from a performance and interfacing point of view. The system is designed to future proof its use as a control system which will be subject to ever increasing rules regarding track and trace, logging of user actions and version control as the beverage industry moves closer to the type of control which is now only required of pharmaceutical plants.

Project highlights

Replaced over 6000 S5 legacy I/O points to new Simatic S7 Platform

2 number MCC Panels were installed.

A new profibus network was designed & installed

10 S5-S7 PLC production system was replaced with a 3 AS Simatic PCS7 system

The system front end was changed from WinCC / Otas to PCS7

Full system rollback functionality

Custom Video Wall control room

System changeover take place from old system to new system over the course of a weekend resulting in minimal production downtime

Key Benefits

Increased Production Capacity – production time reduced by up to 10% and production costs reduced by up to 20%